Just over a week until E3, and we learn that several big companies may bail on the show because they’re afraid of some pig cold. However, other, more manly companies are sticking it out and will be in attendance. Which is awesome.

Now that the weekly health update is out of the way, onto the news.

Green for Microsoft
Blue for Nintendo
Red for Sony

• 3D Realms isn’t dead, says Take-Two lawsuit is a “bully tactic” – Shacknews
• Capcom disallows Keiji Inafune from leaving Japan, blames Swine Flu – VG247
• Swine Flu may keep Capcom Japan from attending E3, as well – Develop
• Swine Flu is killing E3! Koei and Square limiting presence – Destructoid
• Warner Bros. makes $33M bid for Midway – Gamasutra
• Jack Thompson-written Louisiana bill gutted, loses video game impact – GamePolitics
• Guitar Hero 5 will have tons of new stuff, plus everyone’ll look somewhat realistic – Joystiq
• Cowardly EA pulls legacy teams from future Madden games – GamePolitics
• Fallout 3 DLC coming to PS3 — JW told y’all – Destructoid
• Age of Conan subscriber base stabilizing, made Funcom $7.7M in Q1 – Gamasutra
• First batch of Blizzcon tickets sold out – The Feed
• zOMG! Game Addiction on the Rise says study of one guy – Joystiq
• All the Aliens vs. Predator info you could hope for – Destructoid
• Microsoft patented a Wii-like motion controller… in 2007… – Tech Flash
• Oh, and Microsoft also reset some of your gamerscores – Joystiq
• You use DS Flash carts? Then you’re a TERRORIST – Destructoid
• Champions Online gets delayed for about two months to receive polish – Gamasutra
• Wal-Mart joins Toys ‘R’ Us, Circuit City and GameStop in Used Game Market – GamePolitics
• Behold! The full Rock Band Unplugged tracklist – Destructoid
• Behold! More DJ Hero details – Joystiq
• Capcom hints at more Resident Evil 5 DLC – The Feed
• Sony sued over rumble in DUALSHOCK… again… – Patent Arcade
• There are a whole hell of a lot of people working on Assassin’s Creed II – NOW Gamer
• High Voltage sez… The Conduit won’t suffer the fate of MadWorld – VideoGamer
• Dead Rising 2 will not be at E3, sadly – Destructoid
• Avalanche Studios shitcans 20 employees – Joystiq
• Terminator Salvation is PC is pretty broken, recalled – Shacknews
• You like SaGa? Yeah? Like it enough to buy a 20-disc soundtrack? – Destructoid
• Shocking! No OnLive at E3 09 – Joystiq
• BioWare sez… Mass Effect 2 is the “Empire Strikes Back” of Mass Effect trilogy – The Feed
• Contrary to Popular Belief, ESA says E3 09 is not a return to E3 of old – Joystiq
• TRITTON Technologies to Unveil New Headphones at E3 – The Feed
• You want an Indigo Prophecy sequel? Well… too damn bad – 1UP
• Rockstar Games founders… um… found new studio – Gamasutra
• Hideo Kojima sez… yeah, he feels pressure to make another Metal Gear Solid sequel – Develop
• Kojima’s countdown clock struck zero only to reveal another damn clock – The Feed
• Stardock is sorry for Demigod issues, offers free stuff – Joystiq
• More handheld Star Wars Battlefront games seem to be coming – Destructoid
• Leaked The Sims 3 is not the final product – MaxConsole
• Resident Evil 5 on Wii? …yeah, ’tis possible – Destructoid
• BioShock 2 budget is the biggest in Take-Two’s History – CVG

• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom officially official for North America – Destructoid
• Forza 3 is still not official, even though it should be – CVG
• Pilates! On Wii! I can die happy now! – SEGA
• Next Tomb Raider movie to star young Lara Croft – Tomb Raider Fanboy
• APB will be at E3 – Joystiq
• Saints Row 2 gets more DLC, apparently lacks Uncle Gary – Destructoid
• Rolling Stones: Drum King officially official for Wii – Joystiq
• Atlus bringing Demon’s Souls to America – Shacknews
• Activision proves that Dinosaurs are fuckers in Jurassic Hunter – Destructoid
• Metroid Prime Trilogy coming to the Wii – Shacknews

• Bethesda’s Sean Brennan announces that Bethesda will announce “really big” Wii game – GamesIndustry
• Plants vs. Zombies composer Laura Shigihara – Gamasutra
• Suda51 says that No More Heroes sequel is pretty much done – 1UP
• Radical’s Kelly Zmak talks Prototype – Joystiq
• Nick Perrett on 4mm Games – GameDaily

• Engadget kindly asked to pull all PS3 Slim rumors – Engadget
• Electronic Arts to launch a YouTube-like service? – Destructoid
• ThinkGeek Selling Old Dreamcasts as new?! Treacherous swine! – Destructoid (ThinkGeek Explains)
• Is this Team ICO’s newest project? In video form, even? – The Feed
• Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid listed for PS3 by ESRB – Destructoid
• Sony told developers about PSP Rental service at GDC? – Shacknews

• Madden 2010 is… well, it’s Madden – Joystiq
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood’s multiplayer has potential – Destructoid
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is… I have no idea, I don’t read the books – GameDaily
• Need for Speed Nitro is very, very fast – Joystiq
• I want Prototype. Bad. – Destructoid

• Let’s “Meet the Spy” in this Team Fortress 2 trailer, shall we? – The Feed
• Behold! The first Resonance of Fate trailer – Joystiq
• Terminator Salvation takes itself seriously, dude – Shacknews
• Virtua Tennis appears to let you hit a ball… with a racket… – Nintendo.Joystiq
• The Sims 3 will demand you exercise your funnybone – Shacknews
• Deadpool to return in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 – Joystiq
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer warns that you’ll freak out – Shacknews
• Tony Hawk: Ride trailer is… it’s freakin’ Tony Hawk – The Feed
• Jack Black is PUMPED in new Brutal Legend trailer – Joystiq

That’s all for this week. Next week, because of E3 preparations and, well, day jobs, the site will be slow with new content. However, after E3 is done and gone and we’re all snug in our homes once more, the site will return to it’s glorious ways.

It is no secret that Valve and specifically Gabe Newell have a fatwa against the PlayStation 3, so it should be no surprise that Valve won’t be supporting the PS3 owners of Team Fortress 2.

Speaking with 1UP, Valve’s Gabe Newell explained that The Orange Box on the PlayStation 3 was done by Electronic Arts, and that EA is “not doing ongoing development on The Orange Box for the PS3″. In other words, the update coming to both the PC and Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2 will not be coming to the PlayStation 3.

Oh, what a shock.

Later in the interview, Newell more or less placed partial blame on Electronic Arts for there not being a PS3 port of Left 4 Dead, citing they don’t have the bandwidth for a PS3 version.

I’ll say that again: Valve is blaming a lack of bandwidth for there not being a PS3 port of Left 4 Dead:

For The Orange Box, EA did the PS3 version. They’re interested in getting a PS3 version done. We just have to figure out where the resources can come from. We don’t have the bandwidth. We’re doing the 360 and PC version ourselves.

…huh. At least Newell did say that Valve would love to work on PS3 development, but would only do so “as our bandwidth allows us to”.

I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but when you consider that Gabe Newell has a long, storied history of talking down about the PlayStation 3, this sounds like little more than half-assed excuses. Personally, I would rather he just come out, drop the excuses, and say that he hates the PS3 and be done with it.

…that felt good…

The Evil Empire today released a ginormous 128MB patch for The Orange Box that takes care of some of the more nagging issues that PS3 owners had complained about… or so we think. You see, neither EA or Valve, Half-Life 2’s original developer, have stated exactly what this patch does.

I would hope that this patch helps with the poor loading times and framerate issues. Perhaps it will also help with connectivity with EA’s servers (so you can actually play Team Fortress 2).

If any of you readers know what this patch does, feel free to leave a comment. I haven’t noticed any framerate improvements — but then again, I always figured Half-Life 2 ran fine on my PS3.

You buy the product, you get the content. We make more money because more people buy it, not because we try and nickel-and-dime the same customers.

This was well before the game was released and was a forgotten quote up until today, where the issue of paying for additional content does not come up often with so many people just being okay with it. At least, people who aren’t PC gamers. Even I was against it at first, having waited for all the Halo 2 maps to be free before I was able to jump back into matchmaking, I was very stubborn. Now I have quickly bought up 4 Rock Band tracks in the past few weeks (and I still haven’t even beat the game and unlocked all the songs that I have on the disc). This doesn’t mean that I don’t see the value of free content from a consumer point of view, it makes me really want to do business again with whomever would offer such things to me.

This brings us back to Team Fortress 2 and Valve. With a new map pack finally coming soon, the talk of price has come up, and so that Eurogamer quote is now relavant. Kotaku contacted Valve, where the VP of marketing, Doug Lombardi, has not only kept the same mindset of having the content free, but left with this very bold statement, “The platform holder owns the final call.”

I think one can only say.. BAM! Eat that Microsoft and Sony! With this news coming on the weekend, I would expect no official response on the matter until Monday (if at all), but still it ensures that all us gamers, whether we are fans of Valve or not, are able to see who really is making us all pay for horse armor. I think we can all recall Epic stating that Gears of War DLC would be free, but when it showed up, it seems Microsoft tacked on a cost to get it. Now I am going to bet this is going to fall on what will Sony do first, then Microsoft will follow, as if it was up to Microsoft, you know we would be downloading this only after saving our lunch money for a few days.

* New plush toys are in the works. TF2 characters will soon be your bedside companions, starting with the Heavy.
* There is presently no Counter-Strike 2, however…
* …if they go ahead and start development on a Counter-Strike 2, they are leaning to taking an approach similar to what was done with TF2. Re-evaluate everything but try to stay close to the heart of Counter-Strike.
* That’s not to say that CS2 would match TF2’s art style.
* Portal 2 is sort of, kind of confirmed (again).
* Kim Swift wishes to explore more of the Aperture Science labs themselves, to provide more of a look at the building.
* Some very impressive Left 4 Dead footage is being shown
* Gabe states that L4D will greatly appeal to fans of Counter-Strike
* A PS3 version of L4D isn’t completely ruled out, and may one day be developed.
* Goldrush for TF2 is looking to be a rather massive map, easily the size of Dustbowl with the same texture style.
* Nothing in development for the Wii and that is something Valve really wants to look at.
* Episode 3 is being worked on, in case there was any doubt.

It was a really good episode for being focused on one company, so if you have the time, check the full episode at GameTrailers.com.